At least I don't have to do it again for 10 more years...

So on Monday, I'm heading up to Montreal for a work meeting. My passport expired recently, and this meeting was just schedule a couple of days ago, so I'd called up the passport's hotline to set up an appointment at the local passport office. (Luckily, Boston is one of the major offices).

Well, the first few calls don't go so well since the system is apparently so overload that I can't even get through to the automated scheduling system. When I do get through to the automated system, the system takes so long to search for appointments (several minutes!), that originally I thought I'd gotten disconnected. This search fails a few times, so finally I press # a few times on a call, which confuses the system enough that I'm put through to a real person. The agent is very friendly, but has a ridiculously thick backwoods, Southern accent that it makes me irrationally think he's less intelligent than he probably is. Anyways, he searches for a few minutes too, and at last tells me I have an appointment Thursday morning at 8:30a, recommending that I get there at 8am to check-in. Great, smooth sailing so far.

So I'm not a morning person, but ok, get up at 7am, haul ass over to North Station (wander the wrong way down Causeway street), and finally get upstairs to the Passport office a little after 8. Turns out my "8:30 appointment" really means "come wait in line to check-in at 8:30am", and there are almost 30 people already there. Check-in entails a lone agent checking to make sure everyone has the proper documentation, and proper people present For example one dad didn't bring his kids along, or an affidavit from the mom stating it was ok for the kids to get a passport (you know, in case he was trying to steal the kids or something.) Anyways, after all that you get a number to wait in the actual line for passport processing. (Waiting in line for a spot in another line, awesome!) I'm not sure if the agent gave out different numbers depending on when you were traveling so that more urgent cases were processed first. Knowing the government, probably not.

Oh, and the actual processing office doesn't open until 10:15a, with first 'appointment' at 10:30a (which almost everyone is given). Spend a couple more hours sitting in a DMV like lounge and finally get processed. The processing was actually fairly efficient, but I still didn't get back home until 1pm. Now I just have to go back today at 3pm to actually pick up my passport. Overall, not a bad experience - everyone was super-friendly and helpful - but still a waste of time considering all I did was drop off some forms and pay some money.

The real kicker? It was actually even a much bigger waste of time as the U.S's air travel policy to/from Canada (and other nearby countries) just changed today so that passports are no longer required; instead a receipt of application for a passport and government-issued ID are all that's required.

Awesome.

No soup for you!

A Boston police sergeant uses a bullhorn this morning to tell a young man hiding behind a newspaper paper that it was time leave a lobby adjoining the Copley Place Mall after video game buffs overwhelmed security. Some gamers said that they had been waiting in line for three days for the debut sale of Sony's PlayStation3. [caption and picture from boston.com]

Seriously?! All this drama for a PS3? The whole picture above is just ridiculous: from the cop using a bullhorn from incheas away, to the dude who thought he could hide behind a newspaper in an empty cafe.

My new officemate

Click here to see how the monkey became evil.

Pope - political puppeteer?

Here's a very interesting take on the Pope's recent, controversial speech:
http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=275704 (This google link avoids registration. Alternatively, you could try BugMeNot.)

The article presents the pope as a very astute political player, whose words were chosen not only to shore up support from the Catholic base in Europe and the US, but also draw out a positive response from Islamic leadership towards rationalism instead of extremism, after the expected Muslim backlash.

5 for fighting

I totally forgot about the 3-fights rule:

This was back when the NHL had one of my favorite rules – three fights and you are ejected.

Not one – totally acceptable. Not two – probably stretching it, but circumstance could merit that in two unrelated incidents a player might need to try to beat the hell out of someone during the course of a game.

But three? Well, now, you miscreant, now you've crossed the line.

from yahoo sports.

Crashed Ice

Just got back from tryouts for Red Bull's Crashed Ice. I'd never heard of it before, but the competition's been going on for years. What's not to like about skating as fast as you can down an obstacle course in full hockey gear with 3 other guys jostling for position?

The tryouts were pretty cool, but I think it could have been done in much less time. On the rink, they had barrels staged around the perimeter. There was some slaloming, some diving under 2x4's, a few jumps, and then some backwards skating. Not the usual hockey fare, but it was fun to do. Now if only I'd taken some pictures...

Definitely going to City Plaza for the main event. It's gonna be amazing to watch. According to the organizers, it will take about 2 weeks to set the course up, and supposedly, the scaffolding will be 6 stories high! How crazy would that be if they use the whole 60' for initial drop?

seriously...

what's going on here? This was on boston.com

everyone was kung-fu fighting

I'm not sure what my.google is trying to tell me (or even if the content is personalized), but these were two of my information links of the day:
How to Win a Swordfight
How to Become a Ninja

Now if only they'd partnered with monster or craigslist for the above, maybe I'd have a new career path.